WSU's Anderson wins 3rd 400 hurdles title
<p>Washington State's Jeshua Anderson, center, leads Stanford's Amaechi Morton, left, while clearing the final hurdle during the 400-meter hurdles final at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships Friday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa. Anderson won the event.</p>
DES MOINES, Iowa - Washington State's Jeshua Anderson won the men's 400-meter hurdles for the third time in his four-year career Friday at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships at Drake Stadium.
Anderson also won in 2008 and '09. He was the NCAA runner-up last year.
After a 60-minute delay because of lightning in the area and running on a wet track with light rain, Anderson won in a time of 48.56 seconds. Stanford's Amaechi Morton was second in 49.08.
"The big thing was to stay focused," Anderson told Dan O'Brien, the former Idaho standout and Olympic decathlon champion, who was working on the television broadcast of the event. "Last year we did a little different training. I came here focused. The track was wet and there was the delay, but I'm blessed with the time and thankful for another title. I wanted to run faster but within the conditions, I'm thankful."
"Jeshua wasn't bothered by the rain delay probably because the same thing happened to him at the US Junior Championships (in 2008 at Columbus, Ohio) his freshman year," Cougar hurdles coach Mark Macdonald said. "He isn't really fazed by this kind of thing probably because he knows he's better at recovering and warming up faster than anybody else. He was not rattled at all, just confident the whole time. The entire week he was very professional in how he handled the wind of the qualifying round and then the wet conditions today. The past few weeks he's had the added pressure of agents telling him that another NCAA win would mean so much money for his professional career. And he did a great job of managing that factor too."
Anderson plans to compete at the USA national championships in Eugene, Ore., June 23-26, and will continue training over the next year in order to pursue a place on the 2012 Olympic team.
Eugenio Mannucci, a senior from Idaho, finished 15th in the men's shot put with a throw of 57 feet, 11 inches.
Jordan Clarke, a sophomore from Arizona State won the event with a throw of 64-9 3/4.
Florida State's Ngonidzashe Makusha broke the national collegiate record in the 100 meters, winning in 9.89 seconds. Makusha broke the mark of 9.90 set by Ato Boldon of UCLA in 1996.